FInally one for me

[rushing]

Been awhile since I made one for myself.

7' Gator Glass 15-50lb fast live bait

Alps guides

Perfection reel seat(Thanks Andy!)

[Castinski]

Nice!

This may be a stupid question, but what is the reasoning for spiralling the line guides down the rod to the bottom of the blank instead of just running them along the top? I've never seen that before.

[unfrozen]

Nice job rushing, I like the way you tied all the colors together. Spiral wrap will work nice on this rod.

[unfrozen]

Castinski, not a stupid question. You won't find any factory rods that are spiral wrapped. Only custom builders do this and there's a very good reason for it. Spinning rods and fly rods are inherently stable under load. No tip twist is caused because the guides are already on the bottom. On the other hand, bait casters that have the guides all on top will always want to twist under load because the guides are on top. What a spiral wrap does is transfer the line path to the bottom of the rod so when under load, a bait caster is as stable as a spinning or fly rod.

One of the most common questions people have when seeing it for the first time is does it cause a loss of distance when casting? The answer is, when properly inplemented, no.

[Scupper]

Beautiful workmanship Rush.

The blended color scheme of matching the reel and the line to the overall theme is truly custom.

I appreciate the effort in your wraps as I find it difficult to just get my thread uniform...

Scott

[rushing]

Thanks guys! Gonna break it in tonight!

[DTro]

Did you break it in, or just plain break it?

Nice stick as usual Rob!

Bout time you build one for yourself. Something tells me you might have a few orders to work on over the winter.

[rushing]

It was like the dead sea out there last night, except full of people and adventure. I did manage to get and miss the one and only run of the night though.

The rod casts and retrieves like buttah and looks like Vegas under a headlamp.

[harvey lee]

Very nice Rob.

[Jcup]

Beautiful Rod! I'm thinking about making my first one for muskie/pike. Unfrozen can you elaborate a little more about when you said when implemented properly? I think it would be pretty sweet to try this but since muskie fishing is a lot of long casting would it be worth it?

[rushing]

Thanks!

You probably be happy with a spiral wrap. As far as implementing it properly, I think unfrozen just meant with the right transition from top to bottom you shouldn't lose any casting distance. The real advantage of a spiral wrap comes with the fighting of the fish, the rod feels much more stable without the rod trying to twist on ya like a convention on top wrap.

[unfrozen]

What Rushing said. There are different ways to spiral the line. A simple spiral is just the stripper guide on top and then the next guide at 180 degrees. I've got a topwater rod that casts great with this setup but I only use mono on it. If I were to use braid it would start messing with the rod finish. You can also do a simple spiral with a bumper guide between the first two guides. The bumper guides only purpose is to keep the line off the rod. I've got my flippin' stick set up this way. Rushing's rod looks like a revolver spiral with the stripper guide on top, then the guides progressing around to 180 degrees.

I can also add that with a spiral wrap you don't need any extra guides to keep the line off the rod. The more weight you keep off the tip of the rod the more sensitivity you'll retain. Speaking of sensitivity, I know other builders who have had great success using the smallest possible running guides on their muskie rods. In a lot of cases this can mean micro guides which equates to even less weight at the end of the rod.

I would say spiral your muskie rod, you'll never look back.